Desiderata

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1976 edition of The Desiderata of Happiness poetry collection

This article is about the poem. For other meanings, see Desiderata (disambiguation).

"Desiderata" (Latin for "desired things", plural of desideratum) is an inspirational prose poem about attaining happiness in life. It was first copyrighted in 1927 by Max Ehrmann.

In the 1960s, it was widely circulated without attribution to Ehrmann, sometimes with the claim that it was found in Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, Maryland, and that it had been written in 1692 (the year of the founding of Saint Paul's). Nevertheless, the estate of Ehrmann has kept various editions of the work in print. A spoken-word recording of the essay was made by Les Crane and reached #8 on the Billboard magazine charts in late 1971.

At least one court case has held the poem to be forfeited to the public domain because of distribution during and before World War II, but other cases have ruled that the assignee, through Ehrmann's heirs holds the purchased copyright.

1 History
2 Copyright status
3 Additional recordings
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The author is Max Ehrmann, a poet and lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, who lived from 1872 to 1945. It has been reported that Desiderata was inspired by an urge that Ehrmann wrote about in his diary:

I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift -- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods.

Around 1959, the Rev. Frederick Kates, the rector of Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of devotional materials he compiled for his congregation. (Some years earlier he had come across a copy of Desiderata.) At the top of the handout was the notation, "Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore A.D. 1692."

As the material was handed from one friend to another, the authorship became clouded. Copies with the "Old Saint Paul's Church" notation were printed and distributed liberally in the years that followed. It is perhaps understandable that a later publisher would interpret this notation as meaning that the poem itself was found in Old Saint Paul's Church, and that it had been written in 1692. This notation no doubt added to the charm and historic appeal of the poem, despite the fact that the actual language in the poem suggests a more modern origin. The poem was popular prose for the "make peace, not war" movement of the 1960s.

When Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a guest in his home found a copy of Desiderata near his bedside and discovered that Stevenson had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. The publicity that followed gave widespread fame to the poem, as well as the mistaken relationship to Saint Paul's Church.

As of 1977, the rector of Saint Paul's Church was not amused by the confusion. Having dealt with the confusion "40 times a week for 15 years," he was sick of it^{[citation needed]}.

This misinterpretation has only added to the confusion concerning whether or not the poem is in the public domain.

[edit] Copyright status

Ehrmann obtained a federal copyright for Desiderata in 1927 (No. 962402). The copyright was bequeathed to his widow, Bertha, who left the copyright to her nephew at her death in 1962. In 1971, the nephew sold it for an undisclosed fee to Crescendo Publishing Company. The copyright is currently owned by Robert Bell. Ehrmann, however, did not attach a copyright notice to a few freely-distributed copies of the poem, and in Bell v. Combined Registry Co., the court found the work to be effectively in the public domain. The U.S. Copyright Office noted the court decision in its annual reports for 1976 and 1977, noting that "forfeiture had occurred by authorized publication of copies without the correct notice on them".^[1]^[2]

Nonetheless, in other cases in other jurisdictions, Bell has been successful in protecting Ehrmann's copyright.^[3]

Some published versions of the essay end with the phrase "Be careful" rather than "Be cheerful". Lacking any definitive published edition, the reader may decide which is in keeping with the rest of the poem.^[3]

[edit] Additional recordings

Desiderata was also recorded as "Spock Thoughts" on the album Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy in 1968 by Leonard Nimoy (in character as Mr. Spock), with musical accompaniment by Charles R. Grean. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), early in the movie, Spock is speaking to Valeris about the changing political climate, and he paraphrases the line about the universe: "that the universe will unfold as it should".

The Irish comedian Dave Allen made a 45rpm single recording of Desiderata in 1972 on the Philips Records label (part of the Philips Consumer Electronics). It was called "The way of life" and the spoken words were set to the tune of Greensleeves. The B-side was called "The Good Earth".

A recording of the actor Richard Burton reading Desiderata without musical accompaniment is included on the two-cassette A Richard Burton Anthology of Classic Poetry (1978, Audio Partners, out of print).

Spoken-word recordings similar to the Les Crane version exist for translated versions of the essay, often using the same background music and even the English-language refrain. A popular Spanish-language version by Mexican actor Jorge Lavat was issued as a vinyl single and later on an album of poetry recitations called Jorge Lavat y la canción hablada ("Jorge Lavat and the Spoken Song"); it is included in several compilations in the CD era, including Amor '96. Venezuelan pop singer Jose Luis Rodriguez" also recorded the poem.

Les Crane's recorded version was parodied as Deteriorata by National Lampoon in 1972. It was written by Lampoon editor Tony Hendra. Other parodies include Disintegrata (subtitled "The Klingon Creed"), which was circulated among fans of the television series Star Trek.

A UK television advertisement for Nationwide Building Society featured excerpts from 'Desiderata', read by a female voice. It appeared around 1990.

The UK industrial/electronica band In the Nursery sampled the poem extensively on their 1992 release Duality.

The UK musical project Lazyboy (now Lazy B) released a version of this, entitled 'Desiderata' this time around voiced by British actor Christopher Fairbank that was included on the 2004 album Lazyboy TV.

The Human Abstract recorded a song entitled "Desiderata" on their 2006 album Nocturne.